Flexible coupling



June 27, 1933. 1 BIBBY ,915,399

FLEXIBLE COUPLING Filed slept. 27, 1929 gmx/nto@ Patented June 2K7, 1933UNITED STATES JAMES BIBBY, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN,

FLEXIBLE Application filed September 27, 1929, Serial No.

T his invention relates to power transmission couplings and has for itsobject to provide an improved coupling particularly for enabling powerto undue strain or shock between shafts that are not in true axialalignment.

In many power transmissions in which the axes of two shafts are out ofalignment their interconnection isl effected by one or more Cardanjoints including in some cases an intermediate or so-called Cardanshaft. While such Cardan or universal jointing of shafts dealssatisfactorily with any out .of alignment of the shafts it does notprovide resiliency from According to the present invention I provide apower transmission coupling combining the principle of the Cardan oruniversal joint with torsional resiliency such for example as thatderived from the use of resilient bridging elements housed in normallyaligned longitudinally extending recesses in the members to be co'upled,such bridging elements preferably taking the form of the limbs ofl aspring steel grid. A torsional resilient coupling of the .steel gridkind above referred to is fully described in the specification of myUnited States-patent, Reissue 30 No. 15,903 and is well suited to thepresent invention.

For convenience of further kdescription I will describe one particularembodiment of the invention as applied to two shafts that are out ofalignment and are inter-connected by an intermediate or Cardan shaft bytwo torsionally-resilient universalV couplings one at each end of theCardan shaft, but it will be understood that the invent-ion isapplicable to cases in which only one coupling is required and also tocases in which there. is no rooln for an actual intermediate shaft. thetwo Cardan portions of the two couplings being directly connected to oneanother or being formed as one piece.

he embodiment referred to is illustrated in the accompanying drawing inwhich Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of two shafts outof alignment and an inter-connecting shaft all jointed together betransmitted Withoutf the torsional point of view.`

y rection as indicated in Fig.

ASSIGNOR TO THE .EALK,(10ft-PORATJION, OF A CORPORATION 0F lTISCONSINCOUIKPLING v 395,588, and in Great `Britain October 10, 1928.

forrotary power transmission with torsional resiliency in 'accordancewith the present inlvention.

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional elevation of one of thetorsionally re- Y silient Cardan couplings, and

Figure Sis a fragmentary plan view of the saine with the shell or'coverremoved".

The two main shafts 1 and 2 are interconnected by Aan intermediate orCardanshaft 3. Each end of the Cardan shaft is provided with a disk 4having longitudinal grooves 5 on its periphery and the adjacent end ofthe main shafting has asimilar dise i 6 having grooves 7, the metalbetween these grooves 5 and 7 having the general appearance o f gearteeth.

The outer surface of the tooth-like formations/on theend-disc 4 oftheCardan shaft 70 3 are spherical withrr'esi'iectto a centre 8(zo-incident with the intersection of the vaxes of the main shaft andthe Cardan shaftso that the Cardan shaft axis can rock about this centre8 relative to the main shaft whilev 75 always preserving a properintersection of thetwo axes.

A cylindrical spring steel grid 9 is. arranged vwith'its limbs lying inthe grooves l5 and 7 and bridgingthe two discs 4 and 6 80 and isenclosed by a shell orcover 10 Vcarried preferably by the disc 6 on themain Y shaft.

The side Walls of the grooves 7 in the main shaft disc are preferablyflared in one di- 35 3. and the grooves 5 in the Cardan shaft disc -1are each preferably flared or inclined outwardly in both directions froman intermediate point 11 coincident with-a transverse plane normal to 9othe Cardan axis and passing through the point of intersection 8 of thetwo axes. The amount of flaring or divergence of the Vside walls of thegrooves 5 in the Cardan shaft disc must be sufficient to prevent anylimb of the spring grid 9 from binding by bearing against the Walls onopposite sides of the knife edges at the plane of minimum spacing. Theminimum angle necessary for the are or divergence 'is the angle ofinclination of the 100 Cardan shaft with the main shaft plus the angleof deflection of the springlimbsunder maximum torsional load.

Although I regard it as preferable to mount the shell or cover l() forthe cylindrical spring grid onto the main shaft disc as alreadydescribed, the arrangement may if desired forlany reason be reversed,thel shell or cover being mounted on the Cardanl shaft disc in whichcase the main shaft dise Will be spherical in form as to the outersurface y of the teeth-like formation and the grooves in this disc willbe flared or tapered to accommodate the deflections of the spring limbsi and the lack of alignment of the shaft axes.

Various changes maybe made in the emf bodiment of the inventionhereinabove spel cically described Without departing from or sacrificingany of the advantages of the invention as dened in the appended claims.

I claim:

' 1. In a flexible coupling the combination of driving and driven disks,a series of peripheral grooves in one of said disks, a correspondingseries ofgroovcs in the other of said disks, each of the grooves of saidlast named series being flared in opposite directions from anintermediate portion thereof, torque transmitting means comprising., aseries of resilient limbs engaged in both series of grooves to `driveone disk from the other, and a casingcarried by one of said disks andcoacting with the other of said disks for retaining said disks againstdisplacement transversely of the axes of rotation thereof.

2. In a flexible coupling the combination of driving and driven disks, aseries of peripheral grooves in one f said disks, a co1'- respondingseries of grooves in the other of saiddisks, each of the grooves of saidlast named series being flared in opposite directions from anintermediate portion thereof,

torque transmitting means comprising a series of resilient limbs engagedin both series of grooves .to drive one dlsk from the other, andrneanscoactmg w1th'sa1d dlsks for retainingy the same against relativedisplace:

ment transversely of the axes of rotation thereof.

3. In a flexible coupling the combination of driving and driven disks,a. series of peripheral grooves in one of said disks, a correspondingseries of peripheral grooves in the other of said disks, each of thegrooves of said last named series being flared in opposite -directionsfrom an intermediate portion thereof, and a series of limbs engaged inboth series of grooves to drive one disk from the other. Y

In Witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 11th day ofSeptember, 1929.

' JAMES BIBBY.

